A relaxed and loose Western Beaver baseball team beat Rochester 11-6 on Tuesday, its seventh win in the past nine games.
INDUSTRY — The old baseball adage says that a team wants to be playing its best just as the postseason arrives.
If that’s the case, then the Western Beaver has to be feeling pretty good about its chances in the WPIAL Class 1A playoffs. The Golden Beavers won for the seventh time in their last nine games on Tuesday, beating Rochester 11-6. With a victory against winless Clairton on Wednesday, Western Beaver (8-7, 8-3) can lock up at least a share of second place behind section champion Quigley.
Western Beaver’s recent success is a sharp turnaround from the start of the season. The Golden Beavers opened the year by losing five of their first six games.
“The way they’ve responded, I’ve liked,” Western Beaver coach Chad Miller said. “It’s a good group. We just have to put some pieces together and hopefully we can make a little bit of a run.”
The lone setbacks in the past three weeks were a 4-0 loss to Quigley on April 23 and a 4-3 loss to Cornell in nine innings on Monday. The rest have been decisive wins, including two over Rochester and one over Cornell. Miller attributed some of the recent success to finally finding a productive lineup.
“It’s only maybe the last four games we’ve used this batting order,” Miller said.
With 11 runs on Tuesday, Western Beaver has now scored 10 or more runs in six of its past nine games. The production included a five-run second inning that gave Western Beaver a 7-1 lead and provided starting pitcher Sean Tanner with plenty of cushion. Tanner pitched 5 2/3 innings and struck out nine.
“With Sean and Jeddy (Young), we’ve basically been able to give them the ball and they go out there and pitch 90 pitches,” Miller said. “They’ve been big for us all year.”
Senior right fielder Connor Shank led the way with three hits, including an RBI single in that five-run second and another RBI single in the third. Tanner and Jacob Stiger also had two hits in the game.
With everyone producing, Western Beaver has been able to enjoy a loose atmosphere in the dugout. The bond between the team’s eight seniors led to multiple light moments Tuesday and has helped create a relaxed approach at the plate.
“There’s a lot of characters in there,” Miller said with a laugh.
“We’ve been best friends since we first started walking,” Shank said. “It’s not bad to get on each other every once in a while when a mistake’s made and have some fun with it, too.”
Western Beaver lost to Jeannette in the first round of the playoffs last year, a 4-3 defeat that left the Golden Beavers thinking they should have won. With another year of experience and the offense hitting its stride, Western Beaver is setting its sights on a larger goal.
“Absolutely, a WPIAL championship,” Shank said. “There's no greater feeling than winning that. But we have to take baby steps.”